Living off $35 a day isn't enough: sector

The daily struggle of people like Nicole and Josie is the reason behind the social service sector's call to improve the income and job prospects of people on benefits.

Nicole is a single mother who lives off a government benefit of just over $500 a fortnight and shares a rundown one-bedroom garden flat with her young daughter.

After rent, she has $160 left over for other expenses.

She uses that money to pay off a credit card debt, buy groceries, pay for electricity and pay her daughter's school expenses.

"Every fortnight cycle is a real struggle," Nicole says.

"I can just hear people saying 'well go on, get a job'.

"Well, the problem is I had a job last year but partly because of our housing situation, my daughter got sick quite a lot."

Single mum Josie compares living off a benefit to the experience of walking on a wire across a large gorge.

"If anything happens to upset my balance and my children's balance, I'm going fall," Josie, who would not give her last name, says.

"As a single mother you are poor, which means your children are poor, which means their opportunity and their ability to prosper in the world is extremely limited."

Single, unemployed people with no children can claim up to $489.70 a fortnight - or almost $35 a day, under existing Newstart arrangements.

Single parents with children can claim $529.80 a fortnight.

The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) wants the Newstart allowance upped by $50 a week and future rises linked to wage growth rather than the consumer price index.

ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie said $50 was a modest but appropriate increase for the upcoming federal budget to give recipients the decency they deserve but not incentive to remain unemployed.

"Thirty-five dollars a day is not enough; it's not enough for anybody," Dr Goldie told reporters at an ACOSS conference in Sydney.